South Africa’s Bantu Education Act of 1953 devastated an education system that had produced relatively competent speakers of English. It largely separated black learners from native speakers of English. Since then, black South African English (BSAE) has deviated more and more from the norms of standard English. In March 1992 the former president of the English Academy of Southern Africa argued that the official standard of English in South Africa should be standard British English. The present author, recognizing that a language standard is vital, argues that standard English is that system of grammar and vocabulary which underwrites all the native varieties of English spoken in the world. The English of white South Africa is just one variety of standard English shaped by its speakers’ social history and their experience in South African conditions. Given informed and systematic attention to its development, there is no intrinsic reason why BSAE should not become another variety. Bibliogr., notes, ref.
